»The Machine War Has Begun!«

The US is deploying robot troops in Iraq!
Don't believe me? Try the link:

bro if u didnt no that by now....then ur really dont look at the paper too often. and its more of a remote controlled robot. its not that they no who to shoot. the people are controlling it.

Quote:

How do they know who to shoot?

They have to be given the order by a human watching it through camera, you have to read the arcticle lol.

Quote:

And aren't they an easy target for IED's (improvised explosive devices)?

yes, but so are soldiers in uniforms and hummvee's driving them lol. Ah, tax dollars, we can now literally kill like it's a video game. The thing even auto aims, you just pull the trigger so to speak on the other end and enjoy the carnage... at the end of the day you turn off your moniter and go home from a hard days work.

And I thought it would be a good discussion starter.
Excusez moi!
But still, if human troops have trouble figuring out who is the bad guy and shooting him, how are they going to use a robot and camera to do it?

hexediter wrote:

Quote: How do they know who to shoot? They have to be given the order by a human watching it through camera, you have to read the arcticle lol.

I read the article, now read my previous post lol.

you forget, we americans don't keep track of casualties anymore... it would be no easier or harder, although I assume with camera zoom, you could potentially get a better view of your target so perhaps it is even better as far as collateral damage is concerned, since it is also apparently more accurate then the average soldier. The real war of the machines comes when we're too lazy to operate the thing so we program it to work on it's own lol.

specs:
Can be fitted with standard-issue M249 or M240 rifle
Has four cameras, night-vision and zoom lenses
Can travel over rocks and barbed wire
Batteries run for up to 4 hours at a time
Remote control unit has two joysticks and video screen
Costs $200,000 (£106,757) per unit

I found this tidbit kind of funny...

there are plans to replace the computer screen, joysticks and keypad in the remote-control unit with a Gameboy-style controller and virtual-reality goggles.

hexediter wrote:

it would be no easier or harder, although I assume with camera zoom, you could potentially get a better view of your target so perhaps it is even better as far as collateral damage is concerned, since it is also apparently more accurate then the average soldier.

But does the average soldier, or even a trained sniper, cost $200,000 each just to produce? Never mind deployment and maintenance. This is another Bush boondoggle if I ever saw one. Jihadists are not afraid of robots on tank treads.

true, but it's about as much as the avg haliburton racketier we have over there lol.

To shoot somebody by remote control? And isn't the job of the soldier not only to kill the enemy, but to secure the peace?
Can a robot or machine or program really do that, i.e., go out and talk to people, gather intelligence, show the colors? But at least it won't take picures of detainees in a clusterfuck! Or will it?

lol, well, cowardly if you think avoiding risking your life is cowardly. More like smart, but we americans get confused quite easily. And the robot can probably speak better arabic then our average soldier can lol... and even if it did abuse the detanies, it would be alot more amusing. As it stands now it's really disgusting.

hexediter wrote:

lol, well, cowardly if you think avoiding risking your life is cowardly.

For a soldier, the sad truth is that it is. I come from a military family, and that shit is inculcated into you from birth. Soldiers are not supposed to be hiding in buildings and remote controlling robots around to shoot people.
This is how Terminators got started remember? Skynet, the hoverjets, etc.?

hexediter wrote:

And the robot can probably speak better arabic then our average soldier can lol

Now you're in my neck of the woods, unless you're just kidding. There is no way that thing can interact with a human being through speech, unless the jihadists can just say, "Go away", and it does. Now think about an intense combat interrogation with an angry insurgent, or one in which an enemy might refuse to interact with it at all due to the weirdness of a situation.

Does anyone think the robot soldiers in Iraq are the beginning of a new era in warfare? Or do you, like me, think it is just a Hollywood-inspired boondoggle?
-K-

a little of both I think. It's a direction we've been headed in.. the predetar drone and all. But, these machine's are not effecient enough to replace the human soldier yet. Give it another 10-20 years at least.

a little of both I think. It's a direction we've been headed in.. the predetar drone and all. But, these machine's are not effecient enough to replace the human soldier yet. Give it another 10-20 years at least.